Poem by Hilaire Belloc

On Vital Statistics

Ill fares the land to hast’ning ills a prey (1) 
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.’ 
But how much more unfortunate are those 
Where wealth declines and population grows! 

(1)This line is execrable; and I note it.
I quote it as the faulty poet wrote it.

1. To the Balliol Men Still in Africa
2. To Dives
3. Noël
4. Ballade of Modest Confession
5. Sarah Byng, Who Could Not Read and Was Tossed into a Thorny Hedge by a Bull

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